My Long-Forgotten, Cloistered Sleep
by the red hero
Summary: Kagome is gone, leaving behind the future. The deed is done, everything comes full circle—or so they thought. Wounds fester if left untended, and Rinka Seiya, hurt and somewhat scornful of the world must learn to open her shell again lest the future be changed and everything Higurashi Kagome knows will not come to exist.
1. i dream you're still here

**My Long-Forgotten, Cloistered Sleep**

 _~by the red hero~_

 ** _Summary:_** _Kagome is gone, leaving behind the future. The deed is done, everything comes full circle—or so they thought. Wounds fester if left untended, and Rinka Seiya, hurt and somewhat scornful of the world must learn to open her shell again, lest the future be changed, and everything Higurashi Kagome knows will not come to exist._

 _(A story told in snippets.)_

* * *

Rinka Seiya heard stories of her now-estranged childhood friend, Higurashi Kagome.

They first met when Seiya was five and Kagome was ten, when Seiya was a little thing pushed around in a playground for having absent parents and for daring to be strange (with the way she spoke and looked around her, and ran from things no one ever saw).

The first time Kagome appeared was when she solidly decked Shichikotsu-kun over the face, and made the other boys and girls her age run away from a sniffling Seiya. The tiny girl remembers how glorious and solidly wonderful big sis Kagome had been, and how she stuck like glue to the other girl's side throughout her childhood.

( _Thick as thieves, sisters at heart, friends through the end, but yes that was never meant to last, it probably wasn't._ )

When middle school came, Seiya worried about Kagome's erratic absences, the tensing of her shoulders when someone approached, and how a strange feeling often enveloped her being. Like the morning mist cloaked her form away from any harm.

 _(It was even exacerbated when the dog-eared boy came with her from time to time, bright red streaking across the landscape and with the way the looked at each other, Seiya realizes that she might no longer know who Kagome is.)_

 _(The fact that the boy also feels like those other shadowy things she sees, all smiles and the hidden malice; only he seemed more human and powerful than the rest. Seiya decides to keep her mouth shut despite her mounting resentment for the strange boy (?) who accompanies her friend (?) at times.)_

Then high-school, with a solid two years of some normalcy abruptly ensued, and black-haired, gray-eyed Seiya resolved to solidify their friendship again, Kagome was far more subdued, and she always seemed to search for a faraway point in the distance.

And it is when Kagome graduates from High School and leaves without a single word to Rinka Seiya that causes the gray-eyed girl to mumble an apology for disturbing the Higurashi household and run with stinging eyes (tripping once or twice down the shrine steps) and come back sobbing to her grandmother's arms.

 _(She has been abandoned so many times and Seiya is so tired of it; the one constant in her life aside from her grandmother is gone and she has little friends with her side.)_

In a mockery of her tumultuous day, the next sunrise showcases beautiful blue skies and the abhorrent sense of normalcy that seems so out of place and hurtful more than ever.

Even so, Seiya walks on to school, her club activities pending.

 _(Seiya does not pry when Mrs. Higurashi offers to tell Seiya where Kagome has gone; she politely rejects it with a detached expression, her hurt stewing inside. She does not want or care to know why Kagome disappears with no word._

 _Or at least she feels she does.)_

* * *

 **A/N: welp, here's to me writing another thing to my childhood fandom. I always wanted to know just what happened to Kagome's family and close friends after the time she left them for the Feudal Era. Please Review and tell me what you think? thanks for reading! ~ the red hero**


	2. i'll be quiet

**My Long-Forgotten, Cloistered Sleep**

 _~by the red hero~_

 ** _Summary:_** _Kagome is gone, leaving behind the future. The deed is done, everything comes full circle—or so they thought. Wounds fester if left untended, and Rinka Seiya, hurt and somewhat scornful of the world must learn to open her shell again, lest the future be changed and everything Higurashi Kagome knows will not come to exist._

 _(A story told in snippets.)_

* * *

It was on a sleepover during the school festival that Seiya is made the unwilling tank of their impromptu ghost-hunting expedition after their final practice session of _Kaguya-hime,_ of which she is the titular character. The short-haired, gray-eyed girl rolls her eyes as they near the stone well at the edge of school property. Long-ago closed off and filled with dirt, ensconced by trees of varying heights on all sides.

Legend had it that a resentful lady had her husband's mistresses cut up and thrown in the well. The girls, never given a proper burial, were said to haunt the stone well, and that their cries could be heard the loudest during a full moon.

They would drag in anyone who looks into the well, never to be seen again.

It is when Mochizuki yelps and the others huddle close to the seemingly unflappable Seiya that they take notice of the eerie howling emanating from the mossy well.

"Look, it's just the wind; crevices on caves do that whenever something is partially blocking the opening." Seiya replies dryly. "The school must've put in some plywood or whatever over the mouth."

Everybody in the Drama Club looks at her skeptically.

Seiya sighs. "Look, fine. If it makes you guys sleep better, I'm checking it out." She replies, marching over to the well despite her friends' protests.

The night was cool, and as Seiya ran her hand over the smooth, moss-covered stones, she looks inside the dried-up well.

The wind tossed the two-layered kimono she wore along with her hair, causing the girl to draw the outer layer tighter around her.

Seiya peered inside the old stone structure: there was nothing in the old well; pitch black and lifeless.

She turns to look at her company with a dry smile. "No youkai here. Or disembodied soul— _mmmph!_ "

The sound of rushing wind and then the loudness of a cacophony of numerous, indignant voices echo in her ears; Seiya hears her friends screaming as they run in her peripheral vision, and the black-haired girl feels her blood run cold when a disfigured face with rotting gums and empty eye-sockets near her, and drag her down, down and _down._

And they make their appearance. Seiya glimpses white, thread-like lines, some as thick as her arm and others no thinner than a spiderweb entangle her and the cacophony of walking corpses tearing at her outer kimono and her exposed skin, beckoning her to _come join us, come join us, take us back and all of us will be fine take us take us take take us_

In a rare flash of anger and desperation, Seiya grabs a silvery string, no thicker than her pinky and _pulls._ The cocoon of dead souls come apart in an ear-piercing shriek, and Seiya, tired and scared, blacks out as she lands on cold water, deeper and deeper.

The last thing she sees is the pale visage of a full moon.

* * *

 **A/N: The Higurashi Well Treatement commences: this time, with a different well. Hats of to Rumiko Takahashi-sensei for the Feudal Fairytale of Inuyasha.**


	3. to where the lonely ones roam

**My Long-Forgotten, Cloistered Sleep**

 _~by the red hero~_

 _ **Summary:**_ _Kagome is gone, leaving behind the future. The deed is done, everything comes full circle—or so they thought. Wounds fester if left untended, and Rinka Seiya, hurt and somewhat scornful of the world must learn to open her shell again, lest the future be changed and everything Higurashi Kagome knows will not come to exist._

 _(A story told in snippets.)_

* * *

Takao woke up, and looked over his wife. He felt his lips twitch into a smile as he sees his son (now four years of age), sleeping blissfully with his wife. Looking out at the lightening sky, the jovial man stretched and started to prepare himself for another day of work at the fields.

(Later, he resolved to get an extra blanket for his son, making sure that he would not be cold at night.)

As Takao walked up to the Well of Flowers, where they usually paid respects to the Deer God, his breath hitched at the sight before him. It seemed like spring had come back, and the summer was halted for a while. Cherry trees were in full bloom, and the grass was littered with spots of wildflowers and fallen petals.

And before him, the venerated Well of Flowers overflowed with gold-tinged water, like the sun had left pieces of itself to melt within the waters. Above the well, the sight of a pale girl half-slumped across the threshold sent Takao's mind into disarray-

(With a loud scream, he ran off and shouted for the village priestess, fear and uncertainty mingled with strange surprise at the sight he witnessed.)

* * *

The temple was in disarray as spectators gathered around the well. Konohana, the eldest _miko_ of the Hanamori Shrine, was led to the forefront of the crowd.

"She's here, Konohana-dono, fished her out of the Well of Flowers, we did." A man says with a worried glance. "Looks like a noble lady of sorts with those kimono of hers…"

"I will be the judge of that." Konohana replied, with her brown eyes steely and posture straight despite her old age. As she glimpsed the rumoured Girl of the Well of Flowers, her eyebrow rose. A soft, smooth reiki, much like flowers twirling in midair brushed almost shyly against her controlled, yet brusquer one.

The girl herself was also quite remarkably odd; short, black hair that contested the idea of her being a noblewoman (as they viewed longer hair as a sign of wealth), a white kimono patterned with flowers and bare feet. Pale skin (though that could be counted to the fact that she spent who knows how long in that cold well), signing that she could have been a noble lady.

"Well… Konohana-sama?"

Konohana smiled. "She is no Youkai; or is she a noble."

Konohana drew closer; reaching out her reiki towards the younger girl's turbulent but softly spiraling reiki. The girl stilled and slumped against the older woman.

"This child is _miko._ "

* * *

 _ **A/N: Updates again, and unsurprisingly, Seiya is a Miko.**_


End file.
